XSpender - MFW in Training

XSpender

The detox is going well, we seem to be eating more and feeling fuller than when we have tried it before. I do have more time to make stuff but I also have a better understanding and ideas of what we can eat. Plus, I think my tastebuds have changed in the last 6 months or so and I am more adventurous and willing to try new things.

Moneywise things are not great:( DH reminded me at the weekend that the car tax is due next month, DS needs a new sleeping bag/pod as we think he may be waking himself up in the night as he is cold as he wriggles all over his cot and never stays in his blanket. He woke up at 1am then 4 am then 6.15. At 6.15 I put him in our bed as we were getting up at half past and he went straight to sleep until I woke him at 8. I think it was because it was warm. I will put a cardi on him tonight until we get the sleeping bag bought.

Also fed him his porridge straight after his milk this morning rather than after him 9am nap and he ate it all so I am going to do this in the future. I will give him a fruit snack at 10.30 instead.

Sorry, this is supposed to be a MFW diary not a 'clueless new Mum' diary.

The other issue is our TD stopped working yesterday, it won't spin. DH will have a look at it this week as it might just be a belt and I will go back to using just the clothes horses. At least that is more :money::)

I think that I will need to use the £150 I have saved this month and the cash back money for the car tax, bits for DS and the curtain pole. Luckily the paint cost £25.99 not £31.99 as I was expecting so a teeney bit saved there.

DD for £41.06 overpayment went out this morning so that is something positive money wise. Also DMIL and DFIL offered to pay half towards DS new car seat:T

DMIL is contacting a joiner she knows to give us a quote on putting in shelves in the 2 under stair cupboards I have. One is used like a pantry and the other a store cupboard for bulk buys and kitchen stuff I don't use often. Will have to wait until Feb to get done as no £ at the min (see above:().

I seem to have a lot of energy this morning and have got us both washed and dressed, fed three of us, bin out, dishwasher loaded, banking done and bedroom tidied/bed made which is more than I usually have done by this time in the morning:)


As I feel so energetic today my plans are:

• Ring org box co about leafet distribution
• Change name on pay pal account so I can start ebaying
• Ring Mum for advice on TD, arrange visit for Sunday
• Clean up kitchen best I can as half way through decorating
• Sort and put away ironing and underwear
• Search websites for jobs to apply for
• Get clothes horses and juicer out of loft
• Cook chicken for DS to go with curry sauce bought

Best make a start by tidying up another cup of mint tea:)

XSpender

XSpender wrote: »

• [STRIKE]Ring org box co about leafet distribution[/STRIKE]Done and as someone else on my estate is doin it to only have to do next door estate and my street for same fee
• Change name on pay pal account so I can start ebaying
• [STRIKE]Ring Mum for advice on TD, arrange visit for Sunday[/STRIKE] Done but nly advice is get a man out
• [STRIKE]Clean up kitchen best I can as half way through decorating[/STRIKE] Done and floor swept
• [STRIKE]Sort and put away ironing and underwear[/STRIKE] Done, not much difference in the size of the pile to be done
• [STRIKE]Search websites for jobs to apply for[/STRIKE] Found one, applied on line but they rang me about a job that is what I stopped doing3 years ago :mad: My details have been passed to the person dealing with the job I applied for but they have not rung back
• [STRIKE]Get clothes horses and juicer out of loft[/STRIKE]Done
• [STRIKE]Cook chicken for DS to go with curry sauce bought[/STRIKE] Done

{/quoTE]


Made DS some toast at lunchtime and I was good and stuck to the plan and didn't cheat and nick some. It was torture though, my mouth was watering.:p:p

DH is still really stressed/anxious about work and I don't really know what to suggest to help him.:( He is doing well at work, is not under any extreme pressure or anything, he is just findng it difficult to cope and is not sleeping and dreading going in. This is the new job/promotion he started in August.

I think some of it is he that that he feels the pressure because if something did go wrong, with me not having a job, we would be screwed.:( I was always the highest wage earner until I lost my job in May.

One thing that is making me feel a bit more secure (on paper I suppose rather than in reality) is that 2 houses similar to ours have gone up for sale on our estate and the asking price is so much more than I was thinking we would get for ours, a good £10-£15k more. At least I am only in £5k negative equity now:rotfl:

SmlSave

Sorry, this is supposed to be a MFW diary not a 'clueless new Mum' diary

Just a quick delurk to say that I enjoy reading your diary and it doesn't come across as a 'clueless new Mum' diary at all.

cha97michelle

Psst. I will let you in on a little secret. I have been doing it for 4 years and with two of them and i still feel pretty clueless.

You are learning new stuff all the time. Sounds like you are trying to implement lots, so even in a worst case scenario you have a much better coping strategy.

I always enjoy reading about what you are up to anyway.

XSpender

Thank you so much SmlSave and Michelle. It is really nice to know somebody is listening to my rambles.:D

Having a bit of a nightmare of a day. Took DH to work today in my car as a customer was using his (he works for a car dealer) and so that I could use it as he had it yesterday. It took us 25 minutes to get there but took me an hour to get back and I had to feed and get DS ready before going to the lovely job centre to sign on:eek: Then I got told there was a job for me at less than half the salary I was on previously, never mind the car and the perks, it wouldn't have been worth it after childcare costs and they look at you like you aren't really trying and don't want a job.:mad: My maternity leave only finished 10 days ago but I have been job hunting since mid nov with not much luck:(

Last night while I was cooking dinner the fuses blew and the hob went off. Finally got it working but all the sockets in the kitchen have blown this morning so nothing works, can't do any washing, use the cooker (why oh why did I change from a gas hob to an electic one when I had my new kitchen put in?) and the kettle is now in the hall as the fridge freezer is plugged into the living room via an extension lead.

The TD is is in the garage but the power is supplied via a cable, across the gate and through the wall to the socket in the kitchen and I think this may be the cause but nothing I try is fixing it. It will have to wait until DH gets in. At least we know an electircian who is really cheap who can come out and have a look if all else fails.

Don't know what I will cook for dinner as we are on the detox so it is difficult to rustle something up that is filling. There is plenty of raw veg, salad and fruit but we will be starving if that is all we have. Normally we could get a takeaway but we are feeling so great 4 days in to the detox we don't really want to spoil it.

Moneywise, another £1.80 is ready to pay out from TCB so that is £20.34 I can claim shortly. £3.41 has gone into the VSP. My OPs are so feeble when you look at some of the diaries, with people OPing £1000's every month. Slowly, slowly, catchy monkey and all that:D

DH Mum is going to watch DS when I have to go to the hour long workshop thing at the job centre in a couple of weeks. It is a very long story but DH parents stopped speaking to DH and his brother about 2 years ago, no fault of DH or DBIL, and have only got back in touch with us since they saw us out with DS about 4 months ago. If they hadn't seen the baby they wouldn't be speaking to us.:eek: We have only been back on speaking terms since a few days before Christmas. I am not too happy that DMIL is watching DS as she didn't always look after her own children very well and she is the type that would feed him sh*t even though I will have asked her not to. And she has a daft dog that will be all over him. DH will have to give her clear instructions. Actually so I will I.

DH has had to tell her I was made redundant today to explain why we needed her to watch DS and she has said that when I go back to work she will have him full time. I don't want this, I want him to go to nursery at least some of the time.

Oh dear, what a rant. Best get some lunch, it must be my hunger pangs making me waffle.

yukkibear

I wouldn't worry about all the smaller overpayments. I did £30 today

As for MIL if you're not happy don't get into that childcare situation as they're worse to get out of. My MIL has DD2 once a week just because she wants to, but it means my day is messed up (everyone else thinks I get a day to myself but I don't) and have to put up with her winding dd up and then I have to deal with it afterwards. I know yours would be for work though.

XSpender

It is difficult isn't it yukkibear, if it was my own mother I would be happy for her to have him 2 days a week but she lives 100 miles away which isn't really fair to MIL.

I am hoping she will be different now that we have DS as she knows if she spits her dummy out and falls out with us again (she used to do it every 3 months or at every holiday or family occassion) she won't get to see DS. I warned her that I wouldn't have him messed about. I mean, how do you explain to a litte boy that he can't go and see his Granda who dotes on him because Gran has decided to fall out with his mum and dad?:mad:

The good news here is that I spoke to the agency about a job yesterday and I have a first stage telephone interview tomorrow. Need to brush up on some stuff today and rejig my CV/highlight some particular bits of experience so that it fits more with the job description. It is only a 12-18 month contract and is shifts between 8 & 8 and Saturdays but I have spoken to DH and he is happy for me to go for it even though it means he will have to take/pick up DS from nursery/his mums some days.

DH managed to fix the electrics last night :A but too late for me to make dinner so we broke our detox diet and had a takeaway. It was so late coming I didn't eat much and DH had been good and ordered a smaller meal than he usually does. We are back on it again today.

We have found a car seat for DS 1/2 price in the sale, £70 instead of £140. It is one of the seats we were considering so it seems too good an offer to miss as DPIL are giving us half so we will need to find the £35, probably will use savings.

I keep missing the calls from the joiner who is coming to give us a quote to put shelves in my 2 cupboards. Hopefully I will catch him as I only need to nip out to get some sleeping tablets for DH who decided against the calms as they can make you drowsy which is no good for him at work or on the 20 mile trip to and form work:eek:

DS is crawling around the living room floor playing chase with the dog who is loving it:D

XSpender

Just spoke to S*ky about cancelling the movie channels as they have been pants over the last couple of months and they have just knocked 20% off my bill for the next 6 months which is a bigger saving than just getting the movies taken off. Result!:D

If I could persuade DH to get rid of sports and HD I would save another £25/month. Not much chance of that happening though, he loves his sport:(

My washer is still b*ggered, but everything else is fine. I have an ever increasing mountain of washing.:eek: May have to take a couple of loads to my mums at the weekend when we go for a visit.

XSpender

DH has mended the washer this morning:Tso I know what I will be doing for most of the day.

Was very naughty and went on the scales this morning when my weigh in day is Saturday:o It's looking good but not going to post on the MFW weight loss thread until the week is up.

Our N0rton antivirus is due for renewal next month as well as everything else. I have a feeling we might just get 6 months tax for the car and then get a year in August when I will (hopefully) have a job.

Rewrote my CV to fit the job I have applied for better and need to get off here and remind myself of my experience/practice some answers for the telephone interview I have today:eek: It is only 20 minutes and I am just hoping DS is quietish when I am on the phone. He won't be due a nap and will have been fed but just my luck he will decide to do something different to his routine today.

If I do get this job it is only a 12-18 month contract so I am thinking that I will concentrate on topping up the emergency savings rather than OPing in case DH is off sick or changes job.

DH is still really stressed about work and I am gettng worried about him. I have asked him to make an appointment at the doctors to see if they can suggest something. He doesn't need drugs but coud do with speaking to a counsellor but I expect there is a massive waiting list. I don't know what to suggest to help and his manager is worse than useless and is contributing to the problem by making off the cuff remarks that are really getting to DH.

On a MFW note, 96p gone into the OP pot today:)

XSpender

Just lost my post but as most of it was a rant at the patronising and out of touch job centre so probably for the best:o

I had my telephone interview for the contract job today and I am through to the next round which means my details will be submitted to the employer. There are 15-20 positions and she even asked me if there was anyone else who worked with me who was still looking for work as they could apply too. Fingers crossed I get an interview. I could do with the interview practice even if I don't get it as I had worked for my last employer for 12 years so only used to their competency based interviews when going for promotions.

I cut my own fringe this morning, very :money:, and it looks quite good:D I had to cancel my apt at T0ny and Guy this month as I am skint but my friend is coming on the 24th to cut mine and DS hair. You wouldn't believe how much he has for 8 months. I have trimmed it myself once allready.

The celeriac in my veg box was replaced by lettuce (which I needed anyway) this morning so the new recipe for celeriac, apple and potato curry I had planned for tonight will need to be changed. I was looking forward to that:( We have decided to relax the detox a little, still no meat, cows products, sugar or alcohol or carp so I will rejig the meal plan bfore I go to Morries this pm. I might crack open my Christmas cake t give us an

I say no alcohol but I am going out into town for a drink with my 2 BFF on Saturday night for the first time in over 18 months:eek: I will probably be in bed for 11, can't take the pace anymore:o I have been out in the last 18 months just did different things than go drinking:rotfl:

Finally got to the bottom of my electics blowing, its a fault with the new ceramic hob. They are sending an engineer out to fix or replace it.:T My TD is still cream crackered though:(

My leaflets were delivered this morning so that will keep me busy next week. Will give me some exercise too.:)